For the first time, the majority of Americans believe marijuana should be legal. In fact, it has not only just become a majority belief, it’s become trendy to talk about—marijuana legalization is probably the only topic that can really bridge the conservative-liberal roadblock that has defined 21st century politics thus far.

However, for all the reasons marijuana should be legal, almost all of them apply to every illicit substance classified and prohibited under the Controlled Substances Act, all drugs should be legal, all of them.

Let’s get one thing straight. Unlike marijuana, other illegal drugs are highly addictive and deadly; then again, most legal pharmaceutical drugs are too. Like marijuana, the prohibition of other illicit substances causes more damage than the substances themselves.

The same arguments used against marijuana prohibition apply to all drugs because the same legislators, government bureaus, private industries and law enforcement organizations profit off them.

Prohibition is the deadliest drug of them all. Yes, Prohibition is a drug. So many layers of society and industry shoot up Drug War cash like smack, they have literally become addicted to the money enforcing arbitrary drug laws generates. Their addiction has incentivized them to turn every American who gets their drugs off the street instead of in a pharmacy as ATMs.

All state and federal prisons are overcrowded. Civil asset seizures are estimated to be in the billions annually. Private prisons are profiting greater than ever. Violent drug crime continues to rage in the streets, not just of our inner cities, but also our suburbs. Even in small town America, buckets of taxpayer money pay for expensive military-style SWAT raids in the name of sobriety.

Because, like the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, you can never “win” if you don’t define success. If the goal of the War on Drugs is to make every American sober 100% of the time that is as impossible as getting the Bush Administration and all their cronies to admit those wars were their ATM. People like drugs, people have always used drugs and people will always use drugs.

Clearly there is a difference between use and abuse. For some people it is possible to use drugs casually, for some people it isn’t. Drug addiction is real and dangerous. For every street drug there is a pill equivalent. If you want drugs, you can get them, illegal or not. Drug addiction, however, is a medical condition, not a crime.

“Drug addiction, however, is a medical condition, not a crime.”

In a legal market, more people would survive drug abuse. If all drugs, like food tested by the FDA or tap water monitored for cleanliness and safety, were subject to some sort of oversight, even the incompetent governmental kind, street drugs would be cleaner. Consumers would have legal recourse, like with pharmaceutical companies, to sue producers for selling faulty products. In a legal market, we have the ability to regulate drugs the way we do alcohol, tobacco and in some states, marijuana. With straightforward education, not D.A.R.E., and a legal market we could take the counterculture edge off of drug use and prevent some abusers from ever using.

The most dangerous thing about any illegal drug is its manufacture and distribution exists solely on the black market. Anything that exists on the black market is by its very definition unregulated and dangerous. Black markets can be faulted in almost every way for almost every American affliction: poverty, violence, a lack of quality education, crime and healthcare.

While we still haven’t legalized marijuana we are sitting on the tipping point, but it’s important to remember that prohibition never has and never will work, regardless of what is being prohibited. It’s time to push this conversation, the Drug War is not just a war on some people, it’s a war on all people.

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Angela Bacca is a freelance writer, journalist, photographer and avid cannabis and alcohol enthusiast. She has been published in a wide variety of print and digital publications including SFCritic Music Blog, Skunk Magazine, West Coast Cannabis, Cannabis Now Magazine and Opposing Views, among others. She has a Bachelor's in Journalism from San Francisco State University and a Master's in Business Administration from Mills College. Bacca serves as the Media Director for Green Aid: The Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund and specializes in investigative journalism and public relations for medical marijuana cases.

I would support the decriminalization of all drugs but the idea of being able to walk into a store and by a vial of heroin just skeeves me out. I don’t think that the addiction to and use of drugs should lead to jail time but the Unholy Trinity of street drugs (heroin, Meth, Cocaine/Crack) should not be found in the shop on the corner.

ladybudmag

Although methadone, morphine, adderall and other similar pharmaceutical drugs are legal you cannot simply buy them off the shelf, they are heavily regulated, nor do I make the argument that you should be able to buy heroin, meth or crack cocaine on the street. No, you shouldn’t, but more importantly, you shouldn’t go to jail for suffering from the disease of drug addiction with the above substances either. Legalization does not mean mass availability it means a grown up and rational approach to drugs, and treating no drug use as a crime rather than a disease.

I would also posit that crack would never have existed had not cocaine been illegal. Meth probably would never have been invented either.

-Angela Bacca

Seth

so it’s better to have a black market, full of murder than to just let the addicts have their drugs? They’re going to get their fix either way. Might as well not spend 1.5 trillion dollars while they do it

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1604430029 Holly Grivois Logue

I did not say that and don’t put words in my mouth. As I said, it should be decriminalized and should hold no more of a penalty than drinking to excess does. But I don’t think it should be a substance that can be purchased OTC. What Diane said about Switzerland and clinics is a smart and feasible alternative.

http://twitter.com/dianemgoldstein Diane Goldstein

Hi Holly, I write for Ladybud and I am a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Really what we are talking about is imposing a control, regulate and tax model. There are different regulatory models we can adopt. For example Switzerland has a heroin-assisted maintenance program that is managed by a medical provider, clean safe needles, injection sites. What happened was property crime dropped something like 60%. I can list so many more examples, Portugal, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and other countries where the government practices harm reduction strategies to manage the drug problem. LEAP does not advocate what the post-prohibition world will look like and believes in a state by state solution to their own unique issues. So an example would be that cannabis uses an alcohol model, while harder substances would use a medical/pharmacy model.

Someone

I have one issue with leaving it completely to the states.

Here is 3 example of this

Ferrets are legal in about 98% of all states

Mississippi repealed alcohol prohibition in 1966

The over 20 States that haven’t yet legalize medical Cannabis

yeahhhh……………..

I am in favor of full legalization of all drugs including prescriptions

Who is going to smoke K2?

if cannabis is available

Who is going to use street meth?

if prescription grade Methamphetamine is available

List keeps going on and on and on

Decriminalization only solves some symptoms of the disease but doesn’t cure the illness.

OTC? Yes

It is more important to obliterate the black market as much as possible and as fast as possible; than to attempt to appease some individuals who may get offended that some 45 year old John Smith is picking up some Heroin at your local Walmart pharmacy.

Which will ultimately will save more lives.

Guest

Meth is a Schedule 2 Drug according to the USA and is prescribed to children for ADHD, yes it is in fact a reality… just goes to show how insane the War really is.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=27515 Jeremy Daw

A hundred years ago, exactly the kind of legal regime Angela advocates was the law of the land. Even after the passage of the Harrison Act in 1914, cities like New York and Jacksonville, Florida continued to treat morphine addiction as a public health problem rather than as a moral holy war – until 1919, when the US Supreme Court effectively began the modern war on drugs by reinterpreting the Harrison Act to prohibit morphine, cocaine, and heroin for all purposes.

P.S. Read more at weedthepeoplebook.com

http://twitter.com/dianemgoldstein Diane Goldstein

This is by far the best video you will see by any LEAP speaker. Peter J. Christ shows the drug war for the sham that it is.

Grant Trent

“Hell, if all drugs were legal, maybe K2 (spice) or bath salts would never have been invented. Maybe a homeless man in Florida would still have his face.”

It does not do any good to perpetuate falsehoods, particularly ones rooted in a reefer madness-like media frenzy . Rudy Eugene (the Miami Cannibal) was not under the influence of designer drugs and reportedly only tested positive for metabolites of cannabis. All objective signs point to mental illness rather than voodoo pharmacology.

Even if all drugs were legal the compounds used in “spice” and “bath salts” very likely would and should have been invented. These compounds are primarily discovered by legitimate researchers using them to further our knowledge of the body and medicine. It is true that without the incredibly lucrative opportunities created by prohibition those compounds would likely never have been appropriated by the black market and distributed on a massive scale.

Philip Winterhof

Let’s get some free market up in this bitch.

kobachi

This article is fantastic and compelling except for this one sentence: “Black markets can be faulted in almost every way for almost every American affliction: poverty, violence, a lack of quality education, crime and healthcare.” This is a conclusion that’s not supported by the article that precedes it and thus it hurts the credibility of an otherwise fine argument.

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There were no bath salts involved with the Miami face eating attack. The only drug found in his system was marijuana, but the way we deal with mental illness is a separate issue.

http://www.facebook.com/Kathiezzzz Kathie Zamanjahromi

We could grow hemp to heal the earth and use whole plant meds that this aging population need to protect themselves from side effects they do not care to endure, There would not be punishment it would be treatment. Look at examples of this and see.

Martin Andersson

Grant, Yes why would they make new drugs when we already have enough? Well everyone will try to make more money with less expenses. Spice etc are really cheap to manufacture i’ve done it myself and im not proud of it but i made a big buck in no time. Now i only use cannabis and im so happy that i do it.

The Libertarian philosophy is that “We all have the intrinsic right to live in any way we wish as long as our actions have no adverse or detrimental effect on any other human or inhibit their rights to free life.” This is a good and sound credo for life, and it applies well to the use of all drugs.

Those folks who use crack, meth, heroin, et al…they will continue to use them regardless of the law. Stop locking these people in cages. These are crimes against humanity.

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Amen…….Sister………….

Someone

All drugs should be legal. The problem is real knowledge vs fear mongering.

Just look a Portugal and their decriminalization of drugs it works.

I eat right I am relativity in shape. It’s okay for me to eat a greasy death McDonald’s burger once in a while

I’m in good health physically and mentally. Its perfectly fine for me to use recreational drugs once in a while as an adult.

Sadly most societies will never reach that point look how long it has taken for USA opinion about marijuana to change more than 50+ years.

Every generation has it’s batch of people who feel they are obligated to express their beliefs and morals on others. Unfortunately I lot of these kinds of people become politicians or are in positions in relation to the public.

Worried about the kids? Illegal=cool legal=boring

Seriously main reason why they do anything questionable.

Gordon

Yes before i turned 18, I could turn a pack of cigarettes and a few friends into a party. Once i turned 18 and could buy them myself they were nothing special…

Simon Stravitz

Great Scott…THERE’S INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH AFTER ALL!!!!!!!!!!

http://sensiseeds.com/en/cannabis-seeds Devid Easter

Growing cannabis is an illegal activity according to government, because it is having some types of drugs producing capacity. But these are really having many benefits in medical usages, so people are used to allow these plants growing.